Kidney Disease

By Karen Stabiner Paula Deen came out last week. The cookbook author and television personality, known for her enthusiasm for high-fat and fried foods, has been a closet diabetic for three years. And for the moment, she's the chef we love to hate, having seduced us with unhealthful recipes on the one hand while she checked her blood sugar with the other. But she's also a distraction, and the media storm surrounding the news of her illness is exactly the sort of publicity bonanza the pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk must have dreamed of when it hired Deen to be the spokeswoman for its new marketing campaign.

ATLANTA - For the first time in almost half a century, homicide has fallen off the list of the nation's top-15 causes of death. The 2010 list, released by the government yesterday, reflects at least two major trends: Murders are down, and deaths from certain diseases are on the rise as the population ages. Homicide was overtaken at No. 15 by pneumonitis, seen mainly in people 75 and older. It happens when food goes down the windpipe and causes deadly damage to the lungs. This is the first time since 1965 that homicide failed to make the list, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

YOU MAY HAVE READ Tuesday that Philadelphia's first lady, Lisa Nutter, and first daughter Olivia Nutter were to receive flowers from Councilwoman Marian Tasco at Mayor Nutter 's inauguration Monday at the Academy of Music but that someone had forgotten to order them. On Tuesday, Council staffers called Ten Pennies Florist (1921 S. Broad) to ask that arrangements be sent to the Nutter ladies at the family's Wynnefield home. We're told the arrangements consisted of calla lilies, roses and hydrangeas.

Gayle Levick Goldglantz, 62, of Elkins Park, a medical-practice manager who endured four kidney transplants in a history-making fight for life, died of cancer at Penn Hospice at Rittenhouse on Sunday, Oct. 16, the day before her 40th wedding anniversary. Mrs. Goldglantz discovered she had kidney disease after a blood test for her marriage license in 1971. "The doctors told us we would have a very bleak future," her husband, Harvey, later told The Inquirer. In 1976 and 1977, Mrs. Goldglantz had two kidney transplants from cadavers; the organs were rejected after one month and one week.

DEAR ABBY: I have two sons, 19 and 12. My younger boy has a rare form of kidney disease. His kidney function is now normal, but his doctor says that in the future he may need a new kidney. At that point, his brother would be high on the list for compatibility and availability. I, sadly, would not. How does one mention the possibility of being a donor to his older brother? Is it even fair to ask? If he doesn't offer, would I always resent it? Should we wait until there is a real need before asking?

After suffering from chronic kidney disease for a year and experiencing fatigue in recent months, Bishop Joseph Galante of the Catholic Diocese of Camden will begin dialysis treatments six times weekly beginning this month. In an online letter to members of the diocese, Galante said he had a series of medical procedures to prepare him for dialysis. The date of his first treatment has not been set, diocese spokesman Peter Feuerherd said. Although the sessions will last up to three hours each, Galante expects to continue his regular duties.

After suffering from chronic kidney disease for a year and experiencing fatigue in recent months, Bishop Joseph Galante of the Catholic Diocese of Camden will begin dialysis treatments six times weekly beginning this month. In an online letter to members of the diocese, Galante said he had a series of medical procedures to prepare him for dialysis. The date of his first treatment has not been set, diocese spokesman Peter Feuerherd said. Though the sessions will last up to three hours each, Galante expects to continue his regular duties.

The last scene of Oscar Hijuelos' new memoir, Thoughts Without Cigarettes (Gotham Books, $27.50), is a moment of contact with a ghost - that of his father, Pascual. "I remember when that moment came to me," says Hijuelos, who will be at the Free Library for a free reading at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday. "It was a mystical reaching of a different dimension. I don't know what happens when you die, but there is a mystical presence in our lives that extends to people who are no longer around, and you can connect with them in your emotions.

An AWOL sailor and his girlfriend, wanted in a string of South Jersey crimes, were arrested early Wednesday in Cleveland after a monthlong hunt, authorities said. Teague Caton, 20, of Medford, and Jacqueline Negra, 23, of Cherry Hill, had been running from authorities since early Nov. 10, when they allegedly raced out of an Edgewater Park roadside lot with a police officer hanging from the window of Caton's truck. The officer, who was not seriously injured, had tried to arrest Caton on outstanding warrants.

John Stuart Katz, 72, of Society Hill, a film scholar, author, Penn professor, and one-half of a remarkable Philadelphia love story, died of complications from renal failure Friday, Nov. 26, at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. A movie omnivore whose courses explored film's impact on political change, Mr. Katz coedited Image Ethics , a book about the moral ramifications of documentary films. He was passionate about nonfiction cinema such as Errol Morris' The Fog of War , but, if pressed, would say his favorite movie was Annie Hall . Mr. Katz cut a jaunty figure at York University in Toronto, where he was on the faculty for more than three decades, and at Penn, where he taught for 13 years in the English department.